For the second straight week, Christopher Bell has taken the pole in the NASCAR Cup Series. This week at Kansas Speedway, Bell qualified fastest with the only lap over 180 mph at 180.276.
Last week’s winner Kyle Larson joins fellow dirt racer Bell on the front row, running a lap of 179.826 mph. Martin Truex Jr. qualified third at 178.767 mph.
Chase Elliott, competing for an owner’s championship, will start fourth and Tyler Reddick qualified fifth.
Ross Chastain posted an impressive lap to make the final round, but he could not back it up at crunch time and will start sixth.
Front Row Motorsports found themselves the only Ford in the final round, and Michael McDowell will start seventh beside Austin Dillon, who made his first final round of the season.
William Byron and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top 10, with Byron having an eventful day. Early in practice, the No. 24 team found an issue with the suspension in the form of a broken upper control arm. The initial belief held that Byron would have to drop to the rear. After a meeting with NASCAR, however, the final verdict allows the team to retain their starting position.
A trio of Fords just missed out on the final round, as Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher will start 11th, 12th and 13th, respectively. Denny Hamlin, who the spring race at Kansas, qualified 14th.
All playoff drivers that posted a lap qualified inside the top 20, with Kevin Harvick slotting in that 20th starting position.
An eventful practice preceded qualifying, resulting in two drivers not taking time and raising concerns about tires.
In the latter half of Group B practice, Kyle Busch blew a tire in Turn 4, sliding sideways and making significant contact with the wall. Just after the track went green again, Ty Gibbs, who had the second-fastest lap in the group, had a tire go flat in turn 2. Both drivers did not post a qualifying time and will also start in the rear.
Cup Series Starting Lineup At Kansas
The Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway will start at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 10. The second race of the NASCAR Playoffs will air on USA Network.
About the author
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!
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